Want to move from Google Chrome without losing any extensions? Here are the best alternatives to Chromium-based browsers with the same DNA.
Google Chrome may have some solid features and an extensive collection of extensions, but it still has drawbacks.
In addition to several privacy concerns, Chrome consumes many system resources resulting in slow browsing or low laptop battery.
What if you could move to a more secure, lighter browser while still keeping Chrome’s technology?
Chromium is an open-source browser project behind Chrome. Many developers have developed Chromium to include unique privacy, multimedia, and security features.
If you want to scale through from Google Chrome, here are some of the best Chromium browsers that provide a refreshing browsing experience.
Best Chromium-based Browsers
1. Vivaldi Browser
Vivaldi, one of the best Chromium-based browsers, was the brainchild of former Opera CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who was unhappy with Opera’s direction.
It returns some of Opera’s discontinued features, such as grades and grades, which give students the real benefits of browsing, to name a demographic.
Vivaldi’s user interface has a color scheme that fluctuates depending on the current website.
It offers the ability to change themes and configure tabs and supports some of the most flexible customization options you can’t find in any other browser.
Since Vivaldi is amongst Chromium-based browsers, you can install extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
Vivaldi also lets you record web pages and use mouse movements for faster browsing.
Plus, any Chrome user would love its maps hibernation feature that lets you save unused maps and save them for later.
Download: Vivaldi for macOS, Windows, Linux | Android
2. Opera
Opera has been around for over a few decades and has introduced many popular browser features.
In 2013, Opera decided to walk away from its own Presto engine in favor of Blink, a browser engine produced as part of the Chromium project.
Opera comes with a convenient and free VPN service. Not to disclose that it even includes a built-in ad blocker that aids in speeding up your browsing experience while protecting your privacy.
If you want quick access to messaging and social media, Opera has it too.
You can quickly open WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Vkontakte, and Instagram right from Opera’s sidebar.
This means that you don’t need to check your phone while browsing the web. For more unique features, consider adding these Chrome extensions that ensure Opera is even better.
Download: Opera for Mac, Windows, and Linux | Android
3. Opera Neon
In 2017, Opera released an experimental new web browser based on Blink. It is radical to rediscover the look of the future web browser.
The futurism is evident because the first time you start it, you are greeted with a background that blends in well with your desktop background.
Cards are represented by circles arranged vertically instead of the usual rectangular strip of cards.
In addition to cosmetic changes, it also comes with some great usability features. It has a split-screen mode and a built-in screenshot tool.
Opera Neon, one of the best Chromium-based browsers, also emphasizes multimedia-related functions.
The built-in music and video player allow you to watch videos or listen to music while browsing.
Note that Opera intentionally didn’t include extension support, as Neon is currently a conceptual web browser.
Download: Opera Neon for macOS or Windows
4. Brave Browser
Brave is an open-source web browser designed by the co-founders of the Mozilla Project.
Unlike Chrome, its purpose is to block website tracking and remove intrusive ads, making the browsing experience much safer.
But wait, don’t the ads help publishers pay their bills? Adblocking is ethically wrong, but Brave has found a way to keep users and publishers happy.
The Brave Rewards system keeps you coming back to the websites you visit most often.
Courageous rewards come from Basic Attention Tokens (BAT), collected by browsing the web and watching Courageous Ads.
Locks monitors the websites you visit most often and then pays those websites each month with tokens from your virtual wallet.
Download: Brave for macOS, Windows, or Linux
5. Microsoft Edge
Although Microsoft Edge was initially built on Microsoft’s search engine, it has been revamped as the Chromium 2019 browser.
Fast response times and a clean appearance make it a definite competitor to Google Chrome.
While Edge doesn’t wholly block web searchers, it still gives you more control over how you collect your data.
It also allows private browsing and comes with a Microsoft Defender smart display to alert you to any potential threats.
If you read the news online, consider using the Edge, its immersive reader feature removes all screen interference making the article easy to read.
Download: Microsoft Edge for macOS, Windows, Linux | Android | iOS (free)
6. Opera GX
Opera GX is the latest Opera browser and one of the best Chromium-based browsers.
Unlike the standard Opera browser & Opera Neon, Opera GX is specially designed for gamers.
In the sidebar, you’ll find links to your favorite messaging apps and Twitch. Best of all, the pop-up video feature lets you watch YouTube or Twitch videos in the corner of the screen while watching.
The unique feature of Opera GX is its communication with your computer.
You can use the Network limiter, RAM limiter, and CPU limiter to optimize your computer’s performance and be cautious not to let your browser slow down.
Download: Opera GX for Windows (Free)
7. Epic Privacy Browser
Epic is a simple, lightweight Chrome browser that focuses on privacy.
You don’t even have to turn on private browsing mode to start your search — Epic still uses private browsing.
Epic also proactively clears cookies, browser history, and logout cache. It even turns off private information sent to Google, such as address bar suggestions and URL tracking.
Download: Epic Privacy Browser for macOS and Windows
8. SRWare Iron
SRWare Iron is another Chromium-based browser that aims to remove privacy-compromising features in Google Chrome.
A different approach is needed to achieve this: instead of adding new features, it removes privacy-related features from Chrome.
Iron removes error pages hosted by Google, Google Updater, advanced DNS search, address bar suggestions, etc.
But this browser is an excellent option if you don’t want a new browser that’s drastically different from Chrome.
SRWare Iron looks precisely like Chrome, and you can easily sync your Google account and add extensions.
Download: SRWare Iron for macOS, Windows, Linux | Android
9. Comodo Dragon Browser
Like SRWare Iron, Comodo Dragon disables features in Chrome that compromise privacy.
Remove Google address bar suggestions, bug tracking, and user tracking. The integrated PDF viewer, Google Safe Browsing, and Google Translate are also launched.
Additionally, Comodo Dragon allows users to configure their computers to use Comodo’s DNS servers, which perform additional checks to verify website security.
Some of its features include high-level security and Comodo Secure DNS.
Download: Comodo Dragon for Windows
10. Torch Browser
Torch Browser, one of the best Chromium-based browsers, attaches great importance to multimedia-related features.
The built-in Media Grabber lets you record audio and video files from the web, while Torch Player lets you play videos before the download is complete.
Torch also has a built-in torrent client, making it easy to manage torrents from the browser.
Download: Torch Browser for Windows
Choosing Your Favorite Chromium-based Browsers
Whether you want to improve your privacy or enjoy a new design, there is at least one Chromium-based browser for you.
The only big problem is that some of these browsers will take some time to update to the recent version of Chromium, which means you could easily miss critical security fixes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chromium is an open-source project used to build a faster, more secure, and more stable browser. Developers are creating Chromium-based browsers to provide a better user experience. Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are the two best Chromium-based browsers.
Firefox is not based on Chromium; it runs on the Quantum Engine browser, designed specifically for Firefox. This allows the browser to treat your data with respect and to keep it private.
Chrome has the same security advantages and disadvantages as Chrome. Since Chromium is updated more often, it regularly receives security patches from Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox is not a Chrome-based browser. It is powered by a quantum browser specially designed for Firefox.
It isn’t easy to choose between Google Chrome and Firefox. Both browsers are fast, Firefox is slightly quicker on mobile devices, and Chrome is faster on desktop computers. They are both resource-intensive and consume almost the same amount of data.
Microsoft Edge has the Edge over Google Chrome regarding features and options offered. The two browsers are in the same framework, but Microsoft provides unique features like memory usage that are unavailable in Chrome. Microsoft Edge is also more reliable than Google Chrome.
As for RAM usage in Chrome, it can be a problem for users. This can slow down your computer or your entire system. This is because it uses a lot of memory. It consumes a lot of RAM as it splits up every card and expansion in its process, so if something goes wrong, it won’t affect the whole website or all of its cards simultaneously. This makes Google Chrome a more convenient option for you. However, it leads to more memory usage because you must duplicate tasks for each card.
The Chromium Open Source project aims to provide the source code for Google’s Chrome browser. This allows Google to receive information from external sources and quickly replicate new ideas.
In case you didn’t know, many new versions of Chromium are released daily. Here are 10 of the best Chromium-based browsers for you or your friends… Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comment section.
2 comments
By the time this article came out, Torch Browser is no longer in existence (no more installations available since Nov 2022).
This is an old article… about 2 years old, and we are working on a new fix.